On My Mind
by Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Show
Summary: "This seat taken?" He asks, like some suave bachelor in a perfume commercial. Rikki shrugs her shoulder. It's already been a weekend of blasts from the past, why not tack on one more?


Oh, man. So, I, a grown woman, got sucked into rewatching H2O again on Netflix. And I, unsurprisingly, once again fell for Rikki and Zane.

They were one of my fav couples as a young teen, and it still hurts like a mother that they don't end up together in the series.

This is set after Rikki's appearance in Mako Mermaids. I don't watch that show but I looked up her scenes, and it was just so cool to see her again. For my childhood memories, I can only hope that they'll get the original trio of girls to do one more appearance together someday.

This is entirely unbetad- I'll probably deal with that tomorrow. Apologies for any mistakes.

* * *

She really should leave; her trip back home has already been filled with enough interruptions.

Mermaids, real, born-mermaids, and more magic that she's been living with for the past 10 years.

But somehow she ends up making a reservation in the fanciest restaurant she can find in the city.

After all, what's the point of coming home rich and famous if you can't dine at all the places that turned you out as a kid?

His name is on the outside of the building, _his_ , not Harrison's, although she guesses Daddy gave Zane a start in the real estate business.

But _that_ has nothing to do with her choice of restaurant, of course.

Still, she shouldn't consider herself too surprised when she looks up from her table and sees a familiar face.

He looks away from her immediately, turning back to the man he's talking with at the bar. Rikki can pretend too, so she ducks her head over her ridiculously over priced meal and continues without interruption.

He fancied himself a bad boy at 17, but now he looks clean cut, dark suit and even _god-damn cufflinks, who the hell does he think he is?_

She orders the biggest dessert on the menu and takes her time eating it. She doesn't usually have a sweet tooth, but tonight she nearly polishes off the whole thing.

He's looking at her, she knows it, feels his eyes boring right into her, but she keeps her head down over her phone, like that will convince him.

She swipes through all of Cleo's new baby photos six times before she forces herself to look up.

He's said goodbye to his companion at the bar, and they lock eyes again, only this time he doesn't look away.

He awkwardly shuffles up to her table, drink in one hand, the other rubbing at the ridiculous half-beard he's sporting.

"This seat taken?" He asks, like some suave bachelor in a perfume commercial.

Rikki shrugs her shoulder. It's already been a weekend of blasts from the past, why not tack on one more?

He's not drunk, not close, but he grips the glass like its the last thing he's got.

They may have finally found common ground after graduation, but he went to England for university and she never really heard from him again. It's almost surreal to see him sitting here, pulling at his tie like he's 16 again.

"I read your book." He gives her a smile.

Rikki takes another bite of her dessert.

"Really incredible. All of that treasure, the ancient artifacts. Amazing, Rikki."

She smiles widely, that shit-eating grin she uses when her publisher wants her to pose for another hour of photographs.

He clears his throat.

They went treasure hunting once, she remembers. A crate fell on her head and he had to dive in to get her.

She remembers how it felt to wake up on that beach, surrounded by her friends. All of them, so worried about her in that exact moment.

She'd never felt so loved.

"What do you say about how you got them? I mean, people ask questions, right?" He leans forward conspiratorially.

"I'm touched you're so concerned."

Zane takes a long sip of his drink, and she remembers that it was his secret too. For a time.

"Rikki, I-"

The waiter approaches their table and he quiets suddenly.

Rikki takes her bill with a little nod, and as soon as the man has left, Zane reaches for the black folder.

"I can get it."

She nearly rolls her eyes.

"Still like that, huh?"

He frowns.

"Still think you can just buy whatever you want?"

His eyes go wide, and his hand drops the folder in an instant.

"No! No, Rikki, I was only. Trying to be nice."

"I can pay for my own meal." She reaches for her purse, but she can see him nodding enthusiastically out of the corner of her eye.

"I know, you've done really well for yourself."

Rikki purses her lips. She shouldn't be surprised that's what he picks out about her.

"Not just money-wise, I mean- Your whole career. It's great." He pulls at his tie again, and she notices he's sweating. "It sounds like a lot of fun."

It really is, at the end of the day. She gets to help people, bring back pieces of history. And she teaches people to respect the ocean, which is more than she can probably say for his buildings.

He wipes a hand across his forehead.

Rikki glances around to see other diners doing the same, and to her horror, she recognizes herself as the culprit.

She's out of her seat in a flash, darting out the restaurant door before she has time to utter an explanation.

There are footsteps hurrying after her, and an arm catches hers as she's heading towards the door.

"Rikki!" He gives her a gentle pull, urging her not to flee. "I didn't mean to upset you."

She's not _upset_ , she wants to snap. It must be something else, it's been years since she's been unable to control her powers.

"Look, Rikki, I just…" Zane runs a hand through his hair, and she knows that she should leave now, walk away and leave him alone in this city like they all did to her six years ago.

But he looks up at her and he looks… Scared, almost.

"I'm sorry. About everything. I wish we'd stayed in touch, but things were just so… Weird."

 _Weird_ is always an accurate word to describe her life, Rikki thinks.

"But I'm really glad you're here now."

If he wants to have some big, cathartic conversation, then he can absolutely forget it.

"I'm going back to Sydney soon." She says, and she wishes the disappointment on his face didn't make her stomach twist.

"Oh." Zane drops her arm, finally. He looks uncomfortable, like he doesn't know what to do next.

His hand rubs at his neck, and she finds herself watching the curve of his muscle under the shirt, the way his fingers push against his skin.

She really should be filing that under things she should definitely _not_ be thinking about, and yet.

 _Yet_.

"Well, do you-" He clears his throat. "You want to talk? For just tonight?"

Rikki looks up at him and there's an earnest look on his face, his eyes blown wide with… Hope?

She nods, despite the voice in the back of her head whispering that this is a bad idea.

He smiles. It's nice, she thinks, to see that smile.

He's got a room upstairs, he tells her, and she doesn't comment on how suggestive that sounds because she nearly doesn't want him to revoke the offer.

The elevator opens and he gestures for her to enter first, because the past few years have somehow turned him into a gentleman.

She feels his gaze on her backside, and rescinds her first thought.

The doors close, and it's just them, standing side by side. Alone. Together.

Zane clears his throat, but she's glad when he doesn't try to say anything. She's never found small talk very useful. And she's not really in the mood for much talking anyway.

She turns to him, and he's opening his mouth to ask her a question when she presses her lips against his.

He's tentative at first, hand barely brushing her arm, until she fists his shirt in her hand and pulls him in close.

Then he's wrapping an arm around her waist, and somehow she's bumped back into the elevator wall, and they're probably coming up on his floor now, but it doesn't seem to matter.

And _Jesus_ , she's 16 years old again, fooling around in his living room because his dad's out on a trip, and she's still pretending the way he breathes her name into her neck doesn't make her want to cry.

The elevator dings, but neither of them move.

She remembers the way he kissed her all those years ago, sliding open the elevator doors, that cocky smile on his face.

If she were Cleo, she'd get sentimental about it all.

But sentimental is not on the list of adjectives she'd use to describe herself, so she pulls away from him to back through the door, holding out her hand for him to follow.

He grabs it and his skin is warm, so soft against hers. She doesn't remember associating that word with Zane, _soft_.

He leads her down the first hallway, and the key clicks as they swing the door to his room open.

The suite's huge, and the part of Rikki that grew up in trailer homes wants to step back and take it all in.

But another part of her is pushing Zane's jacket off his shoulders, and that part wins for the time being.

They tumble unceremoniously onto the bed, and it's nearly as awkward to fumble with one another's clothing as she imagines it would have been as teenagers.

But there's still something familiar in the way he pulls her close. And these days, familiar isn't a feeling she gets often outside of the water.

She kisses him and it feels… _Nice_. She feels young. Foolish, definitely, idiotic, maybe, but young. And good.

—

Rikki's pretty good at the whole one night stand thing. She imagines it comes from moving a lot as a kid; knowing how to separate yourself in an instant.

No attachment, no hurt feelings. It's an easier system, in the long run.

So even as she pulls on that blue dress and runs a hand through her hair, she's mapping the way to the elevator and how long it'll take to get to her car.

She's got one shoe on when she looks over at him in the bed, surprised when she meets his eyes.

He doesn't say anything, just watches as she dresses.

Rikki pulls her hair up, attempting to look presentable. The clock on the bedside table only reads 9:15, there will be enough people downstairs that someone might recognize her.

His eyes follow her as she moves towards the door, and she makes the poor decision to look back before she leaves.

He looks sad, almost. Regretful?

She hopes not. She doesn't regret what just happened. She's got a few other words for it, but she wouldn't have done a thing like _that_ if she thought she would regret it.

The next morning she finds she does regret slipping out without saying goodbye.

—

He doesn't ask this time before sitting down at her table, plopping himself across from her without so much as a _hello_.

"We should get coffee, or. Something."

 _Something._

She keeps typing, staring at the computer instead of looking up at him.

"Rikki?"

"I'm busy."

He sighs, lowers his head.

She's surprised at how different he looks. He's just a bit taller, but it's the lines in his face, the experience behind his eyes that gets her.

He looks like a man, she thinks. Not the boy she held hands with on the beach, the boy who promised he'd catch himself a mermaid.

But underneath that all he's still Zane, and he's as persistent as ever.

"Can we just talk?" He asks, as if they have anything to talk about.

Rikki snaps her laptop shut.

"What do you have to say to me?" She demands, and he looks embarrassed.

"I just thought… About the other night."

"It wasn't anything." Rikki tells him, and it sounds like a promise but feels like a lie.

Zane twists his mouth.

"It was for me."

Sometime a long, long time ago, at a sleepover Rikki had been dragged to, Emma told them about how she believed everyone in the world had one special person, just for them. It wasn't like a soul mate, because you didn't have to end up with them, but they were the one person you just kept turning to. The one person you never totally moved on from.

It was probably some drivel she'd read in a magazine, but Rikki remembered how Cleo had swooned at the idea, no doubt imagining Lewis in her mind.

She feels a sudden pang of loss for the girls in her chest. She still thinks of them often, but for the first time in a long time, she truly wishes they were here. They might not have always had the most favorable opinions about Zane, but they would have talked to her about it all.

He looks expectant, and she snaps back to their one-sided conversation.

"Okay." She says.

"Okay?" He rubs at the back of his neck.

A nervous tick. Some things definitely haven't changed.

"Okay. What was it for you?"

"I know you probably think I'm crazy, but I…. I still like you. You were, you _are_ , important to me."

 _So important it's been six years and no contact, right?_

"We were _kids_ , Zane." And it felt like the end of the world at 17, but she's a grown-ass woman now, and betrayals from half a decade ago don't hurt so much.

Or at least that's what she tells herself.

"I know, but, we're not now. I said I was sorry, and I really, really am, Rikki. And I think that we could still… I mean, if you wanted to. Then I would. Want to."

He's no more of a wordsmith than he was as a teenager, she thinks.

But he's still got that cute crease in his forehead when he frowns, and his hair's cut short but it still sweeps above his ears.

"Want to what?"

She wants to hear him say, wants to force it out, no matter how it makes him sweat.

He smiles, the same smile he used to give when she'd match him barb for barb.

"Want to be with you, Rikki."

It's been a very long time since anyone said something like that to her, she thinks.

She's got a box under her bed at home, her real home in the city, the big new apartment she spent a fortune on. It's got a dozen rooms but she's put the best of what she has in that box. Pictures, three smiling teenage girls, arms around each other, the happiest they'll ever be. Two separate silver lockets, one from Mrs. Chatham and the other from her mum. A pink iPod with a stupid engraving on the back and a playlist she could never make herself delete.

He's looking at her the way that he always has, like she's something he really, truly admires. A painting or a speedboat or-

Rikki reaches out to take his hand.


End file.
